After failing to respond to a query regarding a Facebook page, by the name of ‘Fans of Sunny Deol’, being run in his support, the election panel on Wednesday issued directions for adding Rs 1.74 lakh to the poll expenditure of Bollywood actor and SAD-BJP combine candidate from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat Sunny Deol.
The order came on a complaint filed by Punjab Congress on May 6, claiming that the said Facebook page was being run without any prior permission of the Election Commission “in an unethical manner”.
Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju said that an enquiry was conducted by the nodal officer of Gurdaspur Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, and a notice was also served to the admin of ‘Fans of Sunny Deol’ page and the BJP candidate to seek their explanation. But both failed to reply within stipulated time frame, he added.
He said that relying on the veracity of the complaint, the Committee decided to add Rs 1,74,644 to Sunny Deol’s expenditure.
Punjab Congress vice-president Himanshu Pathak had alleged that Deol had not given information about the said social media page to the EC, which is mandatory. The page titled ‘Fans of Sunny Deol’ was created on Facebook on April 30, through which, he alleged, lakhs of rupees are being spent on Sunny’s social media campaign.
Pathak had claimed that Facebook had even discontinued two ads about Deol’s campaign as they were “not carrying details of the persons paying for these ads”.
The Congress, in its complaint, had stated that a candidate can spend only Rs 70 lakh on his or her campaign but due to this Facebook page, Sunny had crossed this limit and hence, his candidature must be cancelled under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Sunny, in his first electoral hustings, is pitted against sitting MP and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar from Gurdaspur.